Hurricane Maria: Rescued dogs from Puerto Rico arrive in Morristown

Dogs and cats from hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico were resting and receiving medical care at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison after landing overnight at Morristown Municipal Airport. IPHONE VIDEO BY WILLIAM WESTHOVEN SEPT. 30, 2017
William Westhoven

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Two of 33 dogs and 58 cats rescued from Puerto Rico and cared for by volunteers at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017.(Photo: William Westhoven/Staff Photo)Buy Photo

MADISON — Dogs and cats from animal shelters in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico — including litters of puppies and kittens — were resting and receiving medical treatment Saturday morning at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center after landing at 1:57 a.m. at Morristown Municipal Airport.

"We took in 58 cats and 33 dogs, of all sizes," said Nora Parker, goodwill ambassador and assistant to the CEO at St. Hubert's. "As an emergency-placement partner with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), we are assisting with getting these animals from Puerto Rico to the mainland."

The St. Hubert's network, assisted by volunteers from other shelters, volunteer veterinarians from the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association and HSUS staff, has been similarly deployed several times in recent weeks to accept shelter pets from hurricane-damaged areas in Texas and Florida.

The animals arriving from Puerto Rico, Parker said, were already in the shelters before Hurricane Maria hit the island, many of them having come from other Caribbean islands ravaged by Hurricane Irma.

A planeload of 33 dogs and 58 cats rescued from Puerto Rico is unloaded at Morristown Municipal Airport and readied for transport to St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017.(Photo: St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center)

"We want to make sure the public understands that these are not pets that people will be looking for," Parker said. "Moving them out creates capacity for animals that do belong to people there, until they can get settled and reunited with their families."

Each animal has to be assessed before it can be adopted or sent to another shelter.

"The flights come in here, the animals come off the plane, and they come here to the staging area, where they get triage," Parker said. "They get examined by a veterinarian. If they need any additional vaccines, they get them and then are issued a health certificate."

"We do a head-to-toe exam," said volunteer vet Dr. Jaime Elia of the Animal Hospital of Roxbury. "They're all in pretty good shape, considering where they came from."

A litter of puppies that was aboard a planeload of 33 dogs and 58 cats rescued from Puerto Rico, flown to Morristown Municipal Airport and transported to St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017.(Photo: St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center)

By 4 a.m., the animals were left to rest while many volunteers continued to work throughout the night. Parker said most of the animals would leave St. Hubert's on Saturday, bound for other partner shelters.

Those shelters include Brandywine Valley SPCA in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and the Dakin Animal Shelter in Springfield, Massachusetts, both of which also sent volunteers to St. Hubert's to help care for the animals there.

Once the animals from the first flight are removed from St. Hubert's, more volunteers with clean and decontaminate the facilities there in time for the next rescue flight from Puerto Rico, which was scheduled for Saturday night.

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A dog missing one hind leg was one of 33 dogs and 58 cats rescued from Puerto Rico and cared for by volunteers at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017.(Photo: William Westhoven/Staff Photo)

With more rescue flights expected next week,"We do it again and again," Parker said.

After the caged animals were unloaded at the airport, the two-propeller Wings of Rescue transport plane was filled with donations of diapers, feminine products and other human essentials — collected at the shelter over the past week — before it returned to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. From there, it will refuel and bring those supplies to Puerto Rico before loading up another load of animals and flying them to New Jersey.

"People have overwhelmed us with their kindness," Parker said of the donations, which continued to pour in Saturday morning.